Stanford upsets No. 5 Syracuse

Schmidt assists on three early goals as Cardinal control tempo

STANFORD, Calif. - No. 13 Stanford improved to 3-0 by holding off No. 5 Syracuse 11-10 Sunday afternoon at Cagan Stadium. The Cardinal jumped to an early lead and held on against a Syracuse team that made the final four a year ago, picking up one of the best wins in program history.

"This is probably the biggest home win in the program's history," said head coach Amy Bokker. "I was really proud of the energy of our team. We had to fight for everything, but our girls really hung in there."

Stanford grabbed an early 2-0 lead with goals from Emilie Boeri and Anna Kim. The Cardinal then pushed the lead to 4-1 at the 17:24 mark in the first half as Sarah Flynn and Rachel Ozer found the back of the net. The Cardinal had four different goal scorers, but the constant was Lauren Schmidt who assisted on three of the goals and forced the defense to commit and then find the open cutter.

The other aspect of the game that helped Stanford build the lead was winning draw controls early. Karen Nesbitt had two early draw controls and three for the game. Overall, the Cardinal had a 13-9 edge for the game, creating the extra possessions it needed.

Syracuse fought back, but the Cardinal lead remained ahead by three at half 7-4. Leslie Foard and Schmidt notched goals for six different goal scorers, before Emilie Boeri added a second goal just before the intermission.

The two teams traded goals to begin the second half with Schmidt and Flynn adding a second goal each and Carolyn Bradley becoming Stanford's seventh different goal scorer. Emilie Boeri assisted on two of the goals as part of her big afternoon. At 22:44 in the second half, the Cardinal lead was 10-6, but that would be as big as it got.

Syracuse rattled off consecutive goals, but Bradley added a second goal on a perfect feed from Foard to get the lead back to three at 11-8 with 19:48 to play.

Then for over 10 minutes, neither team scored, as both goalkeepers were excellent in net. Annie Read made nine saves, while Liz Hogan made 12 for the Orange. Stanford outshot Syracuse 33-27 for the game as both teams created plenty of chances.

Syracuse brought the game to 11-10 with 2:43 to play and then won a draw to regain possession. The Orange called timeout to set up a play and created a good chance, but Read was there for her final and most important save.

The Cardinal would then run out the clock, but not without drama as Stanford turned the ball over, but was able to win it back. Read made a nice clearing pass to Ashley Aruffo after a Cardinal timeout to ensure possession to run out the clock.